While
it’s easy — and important — to point out the shortcomings of government-run
health care, it’s also useful to remember how to get out of the mess
we’re in.

Roy Cardato provides a reminder:

Reform
that challenges the status quo would dramatically reduce government
involvement in health care and health insurance markets. People should
be free to purchase their own health insurance plans without being
punished by the tax code. They should be free to purchase any bundle of
insurance services that they desire from whatever company is offering
the best deal, no matter where it is located. They should not be forced
to buy coverage that will never be used. CON laws should be abolished,
eliminating the Soviet-style central planning of health-care services
markets.

Other reforms should include relaxing licensing laws that prevent
trained health-care professionals from rendering needed services.
Another reform should target the tort system, which pushes malpractice
insurance rates to levels that drive doctors out of their chosen
specialties, especially obstetrics and gynecology. And ultimately,
Medicare and Medicaid should be privatized, removing the government
from the health insurance business altogether. Aid to seniors and the
poor should be provided through a system of vouchers that empower
people to own their own insurance plans, lifting them out from under
the health-care bureaucracy.

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